Forced Migration Research Network

Today, one in seven people are on the move. For some, this is a choice but for others the displacement is forced due to conflict, discrimination, persecution,extreme poverty, or environmental disasters. Mobility is a pathway for many in search of safety or better opportunities but it also involves many risks. Given the multifaceted nature of human mobility and displacement, a multidisciplinary and multi-sectoral approach to research that engages with this phenomenon is required.

In recognition of this increasingly complex area, and the breadth of interdisciplinary work being undertaken at UNSW Arts & Social Sciences, the Forced Migration Research Network (FMRN) was initiated by scholars Associate Professor Claudia Tazreiter, Dr Linda Bartolomei, Dr Caroline Lenette and Dr Susanne Schmeidl, affiliated with the Centre for Refugee Research (CRR) based in the School of Social Sciences. This network builds on a long history of high impact work undertaken by the CRR, but importantly also draws together other researchers from history, philosophy, media and film studies, cultural studies, education and social psychology who are producing highly original research on various aspects of human mobility. The Network was formally launched at the inaugural Research Strategy workshop held on the 16th August 2016 (PDF)[1 Mb].

This wider network aims to foster deeper collaboration across the disciplines and Schools in the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences to showcase the diversity of innovative work being undertaken, to leverage such collaboration in future research and funding opportunities and to identify ways in which the network and the university can support refugees and forced migrants who are also co-collaborators in much research being undertaken. This work will build on and extend all existing industry and academic partnership forged by the CRR team.